From: Maggi Rohde <maggi>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 13:50:02 -0700 (MST)

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Stacy DeKeyser wrote:

Being gay or lesbian, for a child, is not about sex. It's about attraction and all the social norms that go along with that. Don't tell me you've never seen 2nd graders flirting, or "going together," or giving valentines to their favorite person. Picture book series like Arthur give lots and lots of positive images of boys and girls 'liking' each other. I don't know if any positive images of boys and boys, or girls and girls
(although many of the girl 'friend' books provide a similar kind of image
-- there isn't much out there for boys who have discovered they like other boys).

As for whether or not children are aware of their sexual orientation at that age, many of the gay men and lesbians I've spoken to said they knew they were gay or lesbian as early as age 4.

I'm not saying all books are necessarily appropriate to have in school libraries, but I would certainly hope there are books available for parents of gay children to provide them with positive images of themselves.

- Maggi Rohde, Children's Librarian
  Canton Public Library, MI
Received on Thu 31 Jan 2002 02:50:02 PM CST